continue...page 3


Here is another parable, from Luke chapter 12: “16 Then He spoke to them a parable, saying: 'The land of a certain wealthy man produced bountifully. 17 And he had reasoned within himself, saying ‘What shall I do, since I do not have where I may gather my fruits?’ 18 And he said ‘This I shall do, I shall take down my storehouse and I shall build a greater, and I shall gather there all the grain and my goods, 19 and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Rest, eat, drink, be happy!’ 20 Then Yahweh said to him ‘Fool! This night your life is demanded of you. The things which you have prepared, for whom shall they be?’ 21 So is he storing up riches for himself and not for Yahweh.'” If the rich man had filled his original storehouse, he would have had plenty of goods for himself. Then if he had taken the excess and made certain that his needy countrymen had what they were wanting, perhaps he would not have been judged so harshly.

18 Rather one shall say: “You have faith, and I have works, show to me your faith without the works, and I shall show to you faith by my works!” 19 You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe it, and they shudder! 20 Now do you desire to know, o vain man, that faith without works is idle?

There was apparently some confusion among first century Christians, and especially – as Peter also explains in his second epistle – over the writings of Paul. Yet as we can tell from Paul's own epistles, it was the enemies of Cfont-size: small;hrist who were purposely confounding Christian teachings at that time, and so they continue to do so today. Paul argues that the “works of the law” were done away with, and it can be proven from the Septuagint and from the Dead Sea Scrolls that by the phrase “works of the law” Paul meant those sacrifices and rituals which were necessary under the Old Covenant. Christ, the Lamb of God, is our final sacrifice and so there is need for rituals no longer, as Daniel also prophesied.

James says here that faith without works is dead (as the King James has it, but even the better manuscripts are divided between dead and idle), and Paul agrees, but his explanations come in a different method. Paul said at Ephesians 2:8-10: “8 For in favor you are being preserved through faith and this, Yahweh’s gift, is not of yourselves, 9 not from works, lest anyone would boast [meaning the rituals of the law], 10 for His work we are, having been established among the number of Christ Yahshua for good works, which Yahweh before prepared in order that we would walk in them.”

The spirit of everything that James says here concerning wealth, faith and good works is summed up again by Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 6, where he says that “17 To those who are wealthy in this present age, you exhort neither to be high-minded nor to have hope in uncertain riches, but in Yahweh who provides for us richly all things for enjoyment: 18 to do good work, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous, sharing, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the future, in order that they would obtain the true life.”

To repeat James 2:19: “You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe it, and they shudder!” Remember this when a judaized churchianity so-called Christian, a Christian zionist, tells you that all one has to do is “believe in Jesus” to be “saved”. They too have taken Paul's words out of context and twisted them to fulfill an agenda. Even the demons know there is one God, and that He was manifest as Yahshua Christ, and they shudder indeed.

At Matthew 8:28-31 we see this: “28 And upon His coming to the other side to the country of the Gadarenes two men possessed by demons coming out from among the tombs met with Him, exceedingly troublesome, so that not anyone is able to pass by through that road. 29 And behold, they cried out saying 'What is with us and with You, O Son of Yahweh? Have You come already, to torment us prematurely?' 30 Now there was afar off from them a herd of many swine feeding. 31 And the demons exhorted Him saying 'If You cast us out, send us into the herd of swine!'” So the demons knew who he was, and they knew that He would be opposed to them. Of course, demons have no hope in salvation.

21 Had Abraham our father not been deemed righteous by works, offering Isaak his son upon the altar? 22 Do you see that the faith had operated together with his works and by works the faith had been perfected? 23 And the Scripture had been fulfilled which says “And Abraham believed Yahweh, and it was accounted to him for righteousness”, and he is called a friend of Yahweh. 24 Observe that a man is deemed righteous by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in like manner was not Rahab the harlot also deemed righteous by works, receiving the messengers, and discharging them by another way? 26 For just as the body without a spirit is dead, thusly also faith without works is dead!

Our daily deeds, the manner in which we live our lives, the things that we do every day in the course of our regular actions, these are our works. Not anything special we do whenever we are reminded that we are supposed to be Christians, but every common act which we do, through these we manifest our faith. Paul explained in Romans chapter 4 that Abraham believed Yahweh, and for that he was considered righteous. But in Hebrews chapter 11 Paul tells us how Abraham exhibited that faith, in verse 17: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.” Paul also explained in Hebrews 11:8 that “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” In other words, Abraham went without knowing exactly what he was getting himself into. So while Abraham believed God, that – as Paul tells us in Romans 4 – he believed that his offspring would indeed become many nations, he displayed that belief in carrying out God's wishes. If we today believe God, then we also should seek his will and act upon it in our day-to-day lives. Not only on “church” days.

Now here Rahab was called a harlot, and James is clearly repeating what he had read in Greek in the Septuagint. But Rahab was not necessarily a harlot, the misunderstanding being that the Hebrew word from which the Septuagint was translated also may refer to a woman engaged in retail trade not that is necessarily of her own body. It is clear, as Josephus believed and as his own account of the story of Rahab relates, that she was an inn-keeper, and not a harlot. The Greek word, πόρνη, is also loosely related to words that describe conveyance for the purposes of trade.

III 1 You must not produce many teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment. [As Paul explains in Romans chapter 2, those who claim to be teachers, yet do not teach the Word of God righteously, are actually blaspheming God.] 2 For we all fail often! If anyone does not fail in word, he is a perfect man able to guide with a bridle even the whole body. [There was only one of those: Yahshua Christ.] 3 Even if the bridles of horses are put into their mouths for which to persuade them for us, then we maneuver their whole body. 4 Behold also, there are such great ships, and being driven by severe winds, maneuvered by the smallest rudder, being driven straight where impulse desires. 5 Thusly also the tongue is a small body-part and boasts loudly. Behold how small a fire ignites so great a forest! 6 And the tongue is a fire, an ornament of injustice. The tongue sits among our body-parts soiling the whole body and setting ablaze the course of existence, and being burned by Gehenna!

James had already said, at 1:19: “You know, my beloved brethren, that every man must be quick for which to listen, slow for which to speak, slow for anger.” Vengeance belongs to Yahweh, and the anger of man does not accomplish the vengeance of Yahweh.

There are more than a few similar sayings found in the Greek classics, and among my favorites are those from Theognis, a Greek Elegaic Poet of the 6th Century BC. He says “Many men do not have on their tongue a door that closes with a well-adjusted fit...” and again, “The mind is a good thing and so is the tongue; but they are found in few men who have control over both”. And once more, he said: “Speech is apt to cause many a slip for mortal men....” Yet if the tongue alone got us into so much trouble, why should we have one? Rather, the tongue is a tool, and we should use it wisely. Therefore we should be “quick for which to listen” and “slow for which to speak”, and James tells us wisely.

Proverbs 16:27: “An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire”.

Psalm 52:2-4: “2 thy tongue has devised unrighteousness; like a sharpened razor thou hast wrought deceit. 3 Thou hast loved wickedness more than goodness; unrighteousness better than to speak righteousness. 4 Thou has loved all words of destruction, and a deceitful tongue.” (In Psalm 52, David refers to Doeg the Edomite.)

Jeremiah 9:3: “And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.“

Sirach 5:9: “Winnow not with every wind, and go not into every way: for so doth the sinner that hath a double tongue.”

1 Timothy 3:8: “Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre”.

Matthew 15:17-20: “17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”

All of these things are of course true, but we must consider how and what kind of speech causes men to slip. And in whose perception do men slip? One man may think that you have erred when he does not like what you say. But what is sin, to slip in the eyes of man? Or to slip in the eyes of God? The Judaeans thought Peter and John were in error, when Peter and John told them (Acts 4:19): "Whether it is just before Yahweh to listen to you, or rather to Yahweh, you decide."

Wisdom 1:6 For wisdom is a loving spirit; and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words: for God is witness of his reins (the bowels were seen as the seat of emotions), and a true beholder of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.

James says that “we all fail often”, and of course that is true. But if we seek with our hearts to be true to the Word of God, our good deeds will far outweigh our failures after our works have passed through the fire.

7 For every species [φύσις – form, or kind, a natural type] of both beasts and birds, and reptiles and sea-creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by the species of man

By “species of man” James refers to the Adamic φύσις. The King James Version translates φύσις as “kind” here on both occasions. This is a reference to Genesis chapter 1, where it says at Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Therefore we see that Adamkind was commissioned in Genesis chapter 1, and that Genesis chapter 1 refers to our race, and not to any pre-Adamic so-called races of non-Whites, which quite sadly many people in Christian Israel Identity still believe.

8 but the tongue no one of men is able to tame; it is an unstable evil, full of death-bearing poison. 9 With it we praise the Prince and Father and with it we would curse men who have been born according to the likeness of Yahweh. 10 From the same mouth proceeds praise and curse! There is no need, my brethren, for these things to be so.

Likewise, Paul says at Ephesians 4:29: “You must not let any corrupt word go out of your mouth, but if anything good is of use for building, that would give delight to those listening.”

Luke 6:28: “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”

Romans 12:14: “Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.”

But a curse is not merely a dirty word. Calling someone a “*****” or a “*******”, for instance, that is not cursing. It may be a slander if it were not true, but it is not a curse. And if it is true, then it is only a statement of fact, even if it is not the most pleasant language. A curse in the ancient world is an imprecation of evil upon someone. Overtly wishing someone harm, that is a curse.

11 Does any spring from the same opening flow sweet and bitter? 12 Is it possible, my brethren, for a fig tree to make olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither does salt make sweet water!13 Who is wise and knowledgeable among you? He must show by good conduct his works in meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not exult and lie against the truth.

Lying against the truth, THAT is how the tongue sets off a world of iniquity. Teaching lies contrary to the Word of God, THAT is how the tongue gets a man into trouble. If I speak against God, then I pray to be corrected. If I speak against men and they blaspheme me and retort with slanders, then I praise God, because as Yahshua told us in Luke chapter 6, “22 Blessed are you when men hate you and when they separate from you and they reproach and they cast out your name as evil because of the Son of Man: 23 Rejoice in that day and leap, for behold, your reward is great in heaven! For in accordance with these same things did their fathers do to the prophets.”

Submitting to the truth of the Scriptures, that is true meekness. Playing politely is not meekness, as the popular culture today would have us believe. In fact, the serpent in the garden was playing politely. Submission to God and to His Word is real meekness, and that is real humility.

As we see James explain here, heresies of doctrine most often come out of pride of heart. As he says in verse 14, “But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not exult and lie against the truth.” This is the source of nearly all of our disputes. Some disputes are honest, however they are usually minor and have no real relevancy or danger to sound doctrine. However there are many people in Christian Identity who have not shed their Catholic, Baptist, Jehovah's Witness or other unsound beliefs. And there are just as many others who imagine themselves to be the revealers of some great new and unique idea which will somehow save us from error. These themselves are far greater errors. The trumpeting of frauds such as Ron Wyatt, Jordan Maxwell, Zechariah Sitchin, so-called Mayan calender prophecies, Elenin, Nibiru, and many other supposed “discoveries”, such as men imagining themselves to be one of the two witnesses or one of the 144,000 of the Revelation, all of this is error produced and nurtured by pride. All of these lies, when we fall for them, only lead us into reproach and an indefensible position in the light of true Biblical scholarship. How can we willingly spread these lies, and even care to face our Redeemer? If doctrine is not explicit in the original languages of Scripture, then forget about it, it is not doctrine at all. If truth cannot be established in the light of Scripture and by two or three witnesses, and also stand in the context of the rest of the Scripture, then it is not truth at all.

15 This is not the wisdom coming down from above but earthly, animal, demoniacal.

As John says in chapter 4 of his first epistle, we are to test every Spirit, to see whether they are of God or of the World. Spirits born of the World are not from God, and they are the spirits of demons. As demons are the disembodied spirits of *******s, *******s are the embodied spirits of demons!

16 For where jealousy and rivalry are, there is instability and every mean deed.

This describes all of the trolls and those who have nothing better to do than to sit in forums and make ad hominem attacks, rather than subjecting themselves to the Word of God. By harassing Christians who seek the Word of God, they make manifest their jealousy.

17 But the wisdom from above is first indeed pure, then peaceful, reasonable, obedient, full of acts of mercy and good fruits, unhesitating, unhypocritical. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those making peace.

Yet the “peacemakers” are not the world's compromisers. Rather, the real peacemakers are those who seek to uphold the Word of God, as the Proverb says: “He that winks with his eyes deceitfully, procures griefs for men; but he that reproves boldly is a peacemaker” (Proverbs 10:10, from the Septuagint).
So if you disagree with what you read or hear, just leave – and if you cannot leave but need to make incessant and nagging attacks otherwise, you are certainly proving that you are no Christian in the first place! Real Christians are not going to compromise!



James Chapters 2 and 3 - January 13th, 2012 | Christogenea.org

James Chapters 2 and 3 - January 13th, 2012 | Christogenea audio recordings are usually accompanied with written commentaries or sources.

https://christogenea.org/…/james-chapters-2-and-3-january-1…

Disclaimer: Rapture Bible Prophecy Forum, ( http://www.rapturebibleprophecyforum.com ) does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article posted on this site. We do however, encourage a healthy and friendly debate on the issues of our day. Whether you agree or disagree, we encourage you to post your feedback by using the reply button.